The successful pollination of almond crops is threatened if bees colonies contract diseases.

Elena Longo (Flikr)

Almond orchards currently use 195,000 hives during their busy pollination season, but that number will rise quickly as new orchards are planted.

Select Harvests technical manager Ben Brown said the industry, mainly located along the Murray River in the NSW Riverina, north-west Victoria and neighbouring South Australian Riverland, would need to attract more bee keepers from multiple states.

"I think Queensland potentially could be an area that increases its supply of hives to almonds," he said.

"Hives from Queensland do come down for pollination now, but that isn't the mainstay of the almond pollination supply, which is typically NSW and Victoria.

"And within [the major bee hive supply] states, NSW and Victoria, they may look to increase their supply as well."

Almond producers met with biosecurity officers and government officials this week at a Select Harvests orchard in Robinvale, north-west Victoria, for a forum hosted by Agriculture Victoria on how the massive increase can be achieved.

ASX-listed Select Harvests is the country's second largest almond producer, behind the Singaporean-owned Olam Australia.

Almonds are Australia's most valuable horticultural exports, bringing in around $1 billion annually.

Busy bees swing into action

Biosecurity officers are inspecting bee hives during the busy pollination season at a Select Harvest almond orchard.